Yebhi raises INR 60 crore in internal funding from existing investors

Ecommerce player Yebhi.com had raised INR 60 crore in internal funding round with Nikhil Rungta joining the team earlier, states sources. Though official announcement from Yebhi is yet to come. But, on contacted by iamwire, Nikhil Rungta, CBO, Yebhi, had neither denied nor accepted the news and made a point that it is speculative in nature and he don’t want to add further to the speculations.

Over the future, Yebhi aims to be the biggest ecommerce company, it aspires to become a thousand crore company and to hit that scale, it will be looking for more funding. “We are looking at next 12-18 months for break even, Nikhil added further.”

For now it has over 17 categories listed on the website and is working to introduce more categories depending on the customer needs.

In July 2012, Yebhi had announced, INR 100 Cr in Series C from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Ventures. Prior to that it had also raised INR 50 Crores from Nexus Ventures Partners and Catmaran Ventures in two separate rounds of funding. Previously, it had also acquired online jewelry portal Stylishyou.in for over $1 million, in a cash-and-equity swap deal.

Affiliate Marketplace Model

Yebhi is working on a affiliate Marketplace model, which is quite different of what other ecommerce marketplace like Snapdeal is doing says Nikhil. In a affiliate marketplace, the marketplace takes the order itself and pass it to vendors. When a customer orders on Yebhi, it takes the order and then reorder it to the vendor or the merchant, merchant supplies to Yebhi’s warehouse and then Yebhi delivers.

New Brand Identity

As per Yebhi, they have been very much customer focused in past and now it is working to strengthen that identity, it has been building backend and frontend from last 2-3 years. Keeping customer in mind it has created new brand identity, and has showcased itself as Young, Energetic & Simple (YES) through its new website and logo.

Year 2013, so far has been very much interesting for the ecommerce businesses in India. Many companies had managed to raise funds but at the same time few companies has also faced a shuting situation. As profitability is the main focus for any investor while investing so only those business model which manages to gain investor’s confidence raise funds. Over the current funding scenario in India in ecommerce space, Nikhil believes that now only serious players are left backing with serious investment, either they have or they are getting it, because they have a credibility, backend created and user base. He believes that not many new players are getting funds today. If you are serious player and shown path to profitability then you will get the funding,” says Nikhil.